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Long Beach gay, lesbian history on display in exhibit

Patrons from The Patch, a gay bar in Wilmington owned at the time by Long Beach resident Lee Glaze, hold bouquets outside the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Station during the 1968 “flower power” protest against police harassment. The protest is a significant milestone in gay history. It took place a year before the Stonewall Rebellion in New York City. Photo courtesy of Lee Glaze.

(This article is part of the Throwback Thursday series on LGBT history. Every week, we will feature an event or person significant to our community’s history. Most of the articles will be about Long Beach or Los Angeles’ contributions, but not all of them. Nevertheless, all of them are worth knowing. – Out in the 562)

(This post was originally published February 2013, but it’s worth another read, or a first-time read for some people – Out in the 562)

LONG BEACH – Though little known, the gay civil rights movement has some of its earliest roots in the Long Beach area.

Many historians say the gay community’s fight for justice and equality began in New York City in 1969 with the Stonewall Inn riots, a series of violent demonstrations by gay people against a police raid.

However, 10 months earlier, Long Beach resident Lee Glaze became a gay rights pioneer when he led a nonviolent rebellion against Los Angeles police harassment at his Wilmington gay bar, The Patch.

“There are examples of post-World War II protests in Los Angeles against police harassment that are not acknowledged by major historians and historical groups. By the late 1960s, a spirit of protest was in the air,” he said.

“The events in Long Beach were part of a pattern that was spreading, and the Stonewall riots in New York finally broke things wide open. But the Los Angeles area is the place where the U.S. gay rights movement was born,” D’Emilio said.

A vintage photograph from that groundbreaking demonstration is on display in the “Coming Out in Long Beach” exhibit at the Historical Society of Long Beach.

The exhibit, which opened last February and will close March 1, chronicles the gay community’s struggle against oppression and battle for civil rights and equality.

The exhibit spans from 1914 to 2012 and highlights the gay community’s historical, social and cultural contributions to Long Beach.

Those struggles and triumphs are told with more than 200 items, including photographs, celebratory paraphernalia, political buttons, documents and banners.

The exhibit marks the first time any group has created an exhibit to spotlight the local and well-established LGBT community.

“I have no doubt this project will find a broad level of interest and support, not just with the LGBT community. Anyone who cares about the history of Long Beach will care about this project,” he said.

Historical Society of Long Beach project historian Kaye Briegel said gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have long been denied their human rights, so ordinary research doesn’t reveal their activities.

“`Coming Out in Long Beach’ will allow us to portray their rightful place in the city’s history,” Briegel said.

This daisy tiara was worn by Empress Dorothy Big Mouth in the Imperial Court of Long Beach which held its first coronation in 1971. The item is one of more than 200 pieces in “Coming Out in Long Beach,” a new exhibit at the Historical Society of Long Beach. The exhibit chronicles the gay community’s struggle for equality and justice. The timeline begins in 1914 and ends in 2013. Photo by Brittany Murray / Press-Telegram

Gay flower power

Part of that history is Glaze’s response to police harassment and raids at his bar.

Glaze was warned by the Los Angeles Police Department that if he wanted his gay bar, which opened in 1967, to stay in business, he had to prohibit not only drag queens, but also men dancing together and more than one person at a time in the bathrooms.

That month, in 1968, Troy Perry, 28, and his date, Tony Valdez, 21, went to The Patch, which was located on Pacific Coast Highway.

Valdez was buying a beer and laughing with fellow patrons when one of them, after hearing one of Valdez’s jokes, lightly slapped Valdez on the butt, Perry, now 72, said in a recent phone interview from his Silver Lake residence.

Valdez and the man who slapped him on the butt was arrested, accused of lewd conduct and taken to the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Station.

Glaze told the bar crowd the Patch would post bail for the arrested men.

Glaze and about a dozen patrons went to a nearby flower shop owned by one of them and bought all the gladioli, mums, carnations, roses and daisies.

At 3 a.m., the demonstrators carried huge bouquets into the Harbor Station and staged a “flower power” protest as they waited for the arrested men to be released, Perry said.

“When we arrived at the police station, Lee told the officer at the desk, `We’re here to get our sisters out.’ The officer asked, `What are your sisters’ names?’ When Lee said, `Tony Valdez and Bill Hasting,’ the officer had this surprised look on his face and called for backup.

“They didn’t know what to do with all the gay men waiting in the lobby,” Perry said.

Six hours later, the two men were released.

“Lee showed me you don’t have to be afraid of the police,” Perry said. “Once that happened, it encouraged me to become a gay activist.”

Two months later, Perry, a former Southern Pentecostal minister, started the renowned Metropolitan Community Church, possibly the world’s first LGBT-embracing church, in his Huntington Park apartment. In October, the church, now headquartered in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, celebrated its 45th anniversary.

Creating ‘Coming Out’

“Coming Out in Long Beach” was nine months in the making.

For several years, the historical society discussed the idea of a civil rights project, but earlier this year decided to focus specifically on the fight for gay civil rights, said Julie Bartolotto, Historical Society executive director.

The historical society announced the exhibit in June 2012 and formed a 17-person steering committee, comprised of local LGBT community members, to help organize the exhibit.

A month later, the historical society put the call out and asked individuals, organizations and business owners to empty their closets and donate or loan photographs, documents and artifacts for the exhibit or to the historical society.

The historical society received several hundred potential exhibit items, but narrowed the selection to the more than 200 on display.

Themes explored in the exhibit include police entrapment and harassment; the beginnings of the Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Center; the social scene, such as bars, women’s bookstores and bathhouses; the formation of Long Beach Pride Parade and Festival; churches and spirituality; and the AIDS crisis.

The exhibit is part of a larger historical society project to collect and preserve the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history.

“We’ve amassed an amazing amount of material, more than we can show, but this exhibit is not a complete history of the gay community,” Bartolotto said. “We hope it motivates other people to do research or share materials with us.”

Though it’s not comprehensive, it’s a great starting point, said East Long Beach resident David Hensley, 72, a member of the 17-person steering committee that helped organize the exhibit.

“There are so many people who don’t have an idea of our past in Long Beach,” he said. “They may remember their first Pride Parade or Festival, but there’s so much more than that.”